A beverage holder for receiving beverage containers, and a beverage container, are described. Beverage holders are used in air, water and land vehicles. Beverage holders are also termed cupholders particularly in motor vehicles.
A beverage holder has a receiving space in which, for example, beverage cans or cups can be inserted. In addition, holding elements are often provided to make it possible to securely hold even beverage containers with a smaller diameter. Moreover, so-called thermo-cupholders are known, which have means for heating or cooling or for keeping hot or cold the beverage present in a beverage container. In that regard, setting means serving the purpose of providing a keeping-warm function or a cooling function for the beverage container are provided at the beverage container or at a control surface, which is provided for controlling the beverage container, or a control panel provided for that purpose. Beverage containers of that kind usually have surfaces with good thermal conductivity so as to transfer the thermal output of a heating or cooling element to the beverage container and thus to the beverage. For safety reasons, the contact surfaces for the beverage container should not be heated above 53° C. and not cooled below 4° C. However, due to this temperature limitation is not possible to provide cooling or heating in, in particular, a relatively short period of time.
Thus, for example, DE 20 2010 000 855 U1 describes a vehicle with an air-conditioning installation and a beverage holder, wherein media channels coupled with a vehicle air-conditioning installation are provided. In addition, a desired temperature can be preset by way of a control unit, in which case comparison is carried out by way of a temperature detector. In addition, a beverage container detector serving the purpose of detecting the presence of a beverage container and the size of a beverage container can be provided.
It is problematic with the beverage holder of DE 20 2010 000 855 U1 that this too cannot provide temperatures above 53° C. and below 4° C. at the contact surfaces. It is thus not possible to carry out rapid cooling or fast heating.
A beverage container with a Peltier element is disclosed in, for example, DE 10 2009 049 188 A1. The Peltier element is arranged at the base surface of the beverage holder and serves for cooling or heating a beverage container. Rapid cooling or heating is also not possible here, since a limitation with respect to the provided temperatures is present for safety reasons.
A method for controlling a holding device and an associated holding device for a container in a vehicle is disclosed in DE 10 2008 012 218 A1. The method serves for controlling the holding device in a vehicle, the holding device having a container receptacle in which a container can be placed and temperature influencing equipment for influencing the temperature of a container. For that purpose, data of at least one sensor are received and evaluated, wherein depending on the data of at least one first sensor at least one holding element is activated in order to hold the container—which is deposited in the container receptacle and recognised—or is deactivated in order to release the container deposited in the container receptacle. Depending on the data of the at least one sensor the container content of the container is subject to temperature influencing, in which case the data of the at least one sensor are evaluated for recognition of at least one temperature influencing wish and at least one temperature influencing function corresponding with a recognised temperature influencing wish is executed. The correspondingly disclosed holding device is provided for a container in a motor vehicle and serves for carrying out the afore-described method.
It is therefore the object to indicate a beverage holder and a beverage container which provide rapid heating and cooling by comparison with devices from the prior art, wherein the beverage holder is constructed for different beverage containers and adheres to safety requirements.